I think this is one of the biggest missed opportunities in education.

We put “technology” in front of students, but mostly in the form of locked-down devices, prescribed apps, and step-by-step workflows. That teaches compliance, not understanding.

There’s a huge difference between using software and understanding how it works, how to break it, fix it, or build your own.

Basic exposure to things like Linux, hardware setup, networking, and programming would give kids agency instead of just familiarity. Even if they don’t pursue tech careers, they’d come out far more capable of navigating (and questioning) the systems around them.

Digital safety is a big one. Not just “don’t click bad links” but actual operational awareness: privacy, tracking, permissions, data ownership. The stuff that matters in reality.

I get that there are constraints like funding, vendor lock-in, teacher workload, curriculum pressure. But the current model feels like it’s optimised to produce competent consumer users of systems, not people who can shape them.

Feels like a massive wasted opportunity.

I hope when he gives his lecture, the students egg him on.

And when I say egg him on… I mean throw. At. And a large quantity of.

1980s tech CPU

So it can already run Wolfenstein and Linux…

The story of the modern PC is about hobbyist, in my opinion. It was a bunch of tech guys slapping things together, figuring it out as they went and cowboy stuff like writing specifications on the plane on the way to a conference. I understand what you’re saying about the limitations around design and production… but these things aren’t impossible just difficult.

Maybe a new discovery in physics or transistor manufacturing will be the key to this new era. Or a bunch of things like that adding up over time until one weirdo figures it out and changes the world.

The real tech revolution won’t be until we can make our own hardware ; enthusiast designed and made processors and semiconductors using consumer grade tools, similar to how you could make your own metal chains out of tools at the hardware store. Until then we’ll be beholden to the billionaire class to grant us access. What I’m saying is we need to make it cheaper and easier to make computers in the first place. No amount software is gonna save you if you don’t have independent hardware.

Now I’m imagining Home Alone, Sam Altman and Jensen Huang are breaking into people’s homes to tell them about how good AI is…

That is essentially how AI news headlines feel nowadays. And about how well their attempts to set the narrative lands with a public that is over it.

Imagine if you pirated a bunch of movies, and then went to the cinema and bragged about it. That’s what Altman is doing there.

Ooof, that is a solid heads up, thank you!

I have bought some things from UMart out of convenience but always prefer to support my local independent PC stores. I guess this just reeenforces why the latter is so important!

Not to mention the diminished teams who are now under resourced to handle their existing workloads. I’m sure they will do great as things spiral because the sloppy work of the AI has increased their workload, not reduced it. As the cracks begin to form on the human side of things, nothing could possibly go wrong. After all, the human element of any system is often the most secure. /s

Correct. Plus it may not be as resilient as we think. Just because they’re billion dollar companies doesn’t mean they don’t follow the tradition of building systems with duct tape and a prayer.

Yep, which from a system setup point of view makes a lot of sense. I’m glad law makers are thinking about computer system design even if the laws aren’t perfect out the gate. At least in this instance it isn’t some covert data collection exercise!

To be honest I haven’t read the law in detail, but I doubt they’ve thought about things like automation, share accounts and other sysops concerns but it’s better than the past 30 years where lawmakers treat digital and the internet like some mystical black box that’ll sort itself out.

“Age verification” is a big umbrella. Claiming that merely checking an entered birth date is the equivalent of uploading an ID is disingenuous and just fishing for clicks.

Yes, there are tangible connections to other concerning privacy violations in this space… but come on. Steam asks you for your birth date before you watch an R18+ game trailer. I’ve been lying on that form for over twenty years, since before I was 18.

Getting upset over this feels like the beginning of getting your panties twisted over everything. “Oh no, someone pressed a button on a keyboard, that’s how nukes are fired!”

This feels like a non issue.

I came here to say something similar. It’s not merely tech that’s to blame but the kind of tech we have today. Kids are being raised to be consumers of tech and tech services. They don’t have basic fundamentals that millenials had to learn to access porn on dialup.

I have been thinking this for some time, why not just have a certified burner phone or tablet and then a free phone as your main?

Realistically most of us have to install shitty insecure apps to survive in this modern world, but that doesn’t mean all our personal data and stuff has to be on the same device.

For the cost of one brand new top model phone, you could probably get a low-mid certified device and a decent Fairphone or equivcalent.

Well for your sake I hope you find some choice places you can enjoy and be yourself online <3

If you’re into sharing pics of Furryosa, Pixelfed could be a good one to check out.

This is my second attempt at re-joining Lemmy after experiencing the same brother.

It sucks having to moderate yourself online so hard when you’re passionate, genuinely care and want to share the uncomfortable truths of the world, but the consequence of a 24/7 deluge of negativity when you have a life to live is just not worth it hey.

I’ve been a bit of a hermit online and offline since the pandemic, 2026 is my year to try to strategically begin getting back out there!

All my email addresses are perma-banned for replying to right wingers. I had death threats, people questioning my sanity and calling me slurs. When I tried to respond with even an iota of the same energy - banned. On Reddit, the right wing is king.

Zed! Fastest GUI editor out there other than Sublime Text.

Go back to IBM OS/2 Warp 4! Back when there was still actual choices in desktop computing…

I think the backlash to LLM is already hurting all AI projects and will be especially bad when that bubble pops.

Everyone’s going to think all AI, and AGI, projects are LLMs and scoff at them.

The magic that used to be tied to the term AI is dead by fraud.

There’s no risk you will develop a sense of humour, of that I am sure!